#770 Reeling for the Empire- Karen Russell

#770 Reeling for the Empire- Karen Russell

What I have found over the last few years during this project, is that the entire genre of short story writing is filled with the fingerprints of Kafka, from mere references, respectful homages or outright theft of ideas. So far no other story has come close to reminding me of the depth and soul of Kafka until now. I am left breathless by this story. Where Kafka often goes dark and desolate, Russell infuses hope and human endurance. Imagine metamorphosis meets fight club!

We are in the Japanese Empire mid nineteenth century. Someone has found a tea that can turn a human into a silkworm hybrid. Girls are “recruited” to drink this tea and work in silk factories where they spend their lives in the same room spinning out the best silk the world has ever seen. But they will never see the outside again, never see their families, never truly be human.

We see these Kaiko-Joko (silkworm workers) in a place they have dubbed “Nowhere Mill”. One girl, for the first ever, has drunk the tea voluntarily and a little too fast. She survived the metamorphosis, but remains a little off inside. Eventually this boldness has made her aware of the potential of her new form, or the ability to turn bad to good, weakness to power. She will not be marginalized again, and neither will her co-workers.

“For the past several months, every time I’ve reminisced about the Agent coming to Gifu, bile has risen in my throat. It seems to be composed of every bitterness: grief and rage, the acid regrets. But then, in the middle of my weaving, obeying a queer impulse, I spit some onto my hands. This bile glues my fingers to my fur. Another of nature’s wonders. So even the nausea of regret can be converted to use.”

Wow…I love this!!!

Notable Passage: “These wings of ours are invisible to you.”

Rating: 10-10-10-10 Total= 40

#333 Taped to the Sky- Luis Alberto Urrea

#333 Taped to the Sky- Luis Alberto Urrea

Hubbard is in a bad way. His wife, the woman he bought a car and an education for, the woman he just helped get through an AA program, left with her sponsor. He decided to take the car back and drive his troubles away.

South to Louisiana, West to Texas, North to Colorado, etc…“This whole chunk of the map was written in poems and liquor bottle labels.”

His grief subsided with each state, each dumb roadside attraction, each violence run-in with the local drunks. As the sky got bigger, his head got clearer:

“There were patterns moving across the sky, high, where small scallops of cloud shimmered like mother-of-pearl. He felt a part of the great becoming, the revelation of the West.”

Sometimes when you feel abandoned, maybe you’ve really been set free. Sometimes, you still need to be taught a lesson.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#177 Hunting Knife- Haruki Murakami

#177 Hunting Knife- Haruki Murakami

This is a tiresome piece. I don’t mean boring I mean literally sleepy:

--“He yawned. A long formal kind of yawn. Elegant, almost.”

--“He sank back into an insomniac silence.”

--“The waves lapped at the rocks, leaving white foam behind; by the time the foam vanished, new waves appeared.”

Life seems meaningless when nothing changes. The helicopters came at the same time, the sun crossed the ocean in the same way, the mother/son duo appeared on the beach at the same time everyday.

“One listless day followed another, with nothing to distinguish one from the next. You could have changed the order and no one would have noticed. The sun rose in the east and set in the west, the olive-green helicopters zoomed in low, and I downed gallons of beer and swam to my heart’s content."

Perhaps, life is a dream, or we are in a purgatory holding pattern waiting for salvation: “Was it all an illusion? Or was I the illusion? Maybe it didn’t matter. Come tomorrow, I wouldn’t be here anymore.”

The things that change are the things that we remember, but change is what makes us sick, or hurt, or injured. Change is a knife cutting whatever it can reach.

Notable Passage: “It was as if my whole life revolved around trying to judge the right point in the conversation to say goodbye.”

Rating: 8-8-8-7 Total=31

#102 Everyday Use- Alice Walker

#102 Everyday Use- Alice Walker

Change is a struggle. Dee is growing up, leaves home for college, and learns about self-worth, social change, and the oppression of her community. In her sudden evolution, she has a hard times grasping what and where her true heritage lies.

She is embarrassed of her family, her uneducated mother and timid sister living in the poor old part of town. She was happy when the old place burned down and couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  But she has found a bit of knowledge, hooked up with a righteous Muslim man, and despite changing her name, and donning new African clothing, has come back to grab some of her heritage. She takes a polaroid of the house to prove her humble upbringing, she fawns over the hand-made furniture her family made themselves, and she wants her mother to give her grandmother’s (the one she is named after) handmade quilts.

The fight over these quilts is the heart of her struggle. They have been promised to Maggie, her younger sister, but Dee is afraid that they will be ruined in her care because she will use them for everyday use. Of course they will, her mothers says and good thing too, because they haven’t been getting any use lately. Dee doesn’t want to use them, she wants to hang them in her house, to remember and display her heritage.

She warns her sister: “You ought to try to make something of yourself too, Maggie. It’s really a new day for us. But from the way you and mama still live you’d never know it.”

Change is a struggle, but not all change is good for all people. It’s good that Maggie wants to learn and be an evolved individual, but her desires are misplaced and her disrespect for her family and real upbringing is regretful. It’s a mistake made by many young people trying to strike out on their own. Mama is a rock, her patience and love are commendable. She tries to give enough room for growth while turning the other cheek…but the quilts are a step too far.

Notable Passage: “A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is an extended living room.”

Rating: 8-8-9-9 Total= 34

#81 A Boll of Roses- Henry Dumas

#81 A Boll of Roses- Henry Dumas

Layton Fields is a young man splitting his time between school and working the cotton fields, although the cotton fields are getting to become a full time. “He felt ashamed of staying out of school just to pick cotton.” But he wants money. Despite his mother telling him:

“Money ain’t worth losing your soul over.”

The time’s are a-changin’ and the freedom riders have been coming around to register people to vote, and help people get back to school. The old folk are all about the changes: “You young-uns oughta get out of this field and get with them rights people. They got the Lord on their side.”

Layton is young, cares mostly about money to buy fancy cloths like the cats from the city have. His interest in the voting people is only about the pretty girls he sees. Themes of change, complacency, and the power of knowledge run throughout this story. What I like most about Dumas, is that no matter where we are, what is going on, at some point he stops and takes note of something beautiful:

Notable Passage: “Suddenly he became conscious of the dying and falling of things. He could hear in his head an echo and he could see where the echo was going without even taking his eyes off the axe and the echo was soft and pretty like a human voice and it flew like a bird flies across the sky, slow and fast but never too fast, and up and down in the wind and all he knew suddenly is that he felt real good and nobody could tell him different.”

Rating: 8-8-7-8 Total= 31